Enhanced Anycast For Edge Server Selection

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for gathering distributed information to improve routing that uses Anycast for assigning deliveries between a number of geographically-distant points of presence (POPs) are disclosed. The POPs share the same Internet protocol (IP) address. According to Anycast resolution, the Internet aids in assigning a content request initially to a POP. Delivery statistics are gathered from deliveries a the number of POPs and possibly other sources. Where it is determined that Anycast found the wrong POP, the content request is reassigned to another POP.

This application claims the benefit of and is a non-provisional ofco-pending: U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/248,380 filed onOct. 2, 2009; and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/248,381 filedon Oct. 2, 2009; which are hereby expressly incorporated by reference intheir entirety for all purposes.

This application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser.No. ______, filed on the same date as the present application, entitled“REAL-TIME MESSAGE QUEUING FOR A PROCESSING RING” (temporarilyreferenced by Attorney Docket No. 040152-007410US), which is herebyexpressly incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

This disclosure relates in general to routing deliveries and, but not byway of limitation, to improving Anycast routing for a distributed groupof points of presence (POPs).

CDNs provide enhanced delivery of content with many optimizations. Oneoptimization is to assign a nearby POP to deliver a request such that ina network-sense the sender and receiver are close by with few hops,little latency and/or however else quality of service (QoS) is defined.Anycast can be used to allow the Internet to assign a request to anearby POP. In some cases, the POP assigned to an end user with Anycastmay not be the most favorable location to receive content. For example,a user in Phoenix could use a POP in New York in some circumstanceslikely providing less than optimum QoS.

Delivery of content is greatly affected by how the broader Internet isbehaving in real time or near real time. There are services that provideInternet health information that is gathered and periodically madeavailable. This can be useful to some, but does not provide recentenough information for many decisions a CDN or other large-scale user ofthe Internet would require to provide high levels of QoS. General trendsprovided by infrequent updates does not provide the timely informationto make some delivery decisions.

SUMMARY

In one embodiment, the present disclosure describes systems and methodsfor gathering distributed information to improve routing that usesAnycast for assigning deliveries between a number ofgeographically-distant points of presence (POPs). The POPs share thesame Internet protocol (IP) address. According to Anycast resolution,the Internet aids in assigning a content request initially to a POP.Delivery statistics are gathered from deliveries a the number of POPsand possibly other sources. Where it is determined that Anycast foundthe wrong POP, the content request is reassigned to another POP.

In another embodiment, the present disclosure describes a contentdelivery network (CDN) for delivering content of others with theInternet using a plurality of POPs. The CDN includes a first and secondPOPs and a switch fabric. The first POP is accessible using an Internetprotocol (IP) address. The first POP comprises a plurality of first edgeservers that each are configured to deliver content to end user devices.The second POP accessible using the IP address. The plurality of POPscomprise the first POP and the second POP where the second POP isgeographically separated from the first POP. The second POP includes aplurality of second edge servers that each are configured to delivercontent to end user devices. The switch fabric that assigns a requestfor content received at the first POP to one of the plurality of secondedge servers when the second POP is determined likely to provideimproved delivery of the content object of the request.

In still another embodiment, the present disclosure describes a methodfor assigning delivery resources in a CDN between a plurality of POPs. Arequest is received to deliver a content object to an end user at afirst POP. The first POP comprises a plurality of first edge servers.The plurality of POPs includes the first POP and a second POP. The firstPOP is geographically distant from the second POP. It is determined thatthe second POP is likely to provide improved delivery of the contentobject to the end user in comparison to the first POP. The second POPcomprises a plurality of second edge servers. The first POP and thesecond POP are accessed from the Internet with a same IP address. Therequest is assigned to one of the plurality of second edge servers.

In yet another embodiment, the present disclosure describes a method forassigning delivery resources in a distributed delivery network having aplurality of POPs that uses Anycast to assist in assigning contentrequests. A request is received to deliver a content object to an enduser at a first POP. The plurality of POPs includes the first POP and asecond POP. It is determined that the second POP is likely to provideimproved delivery of the content object to the end user in comparison tothe first POP. The plurality of POPs comprise the first POP and thesecond POP where first and second POPs share the same IP address. Thefirst POP is geographically distant from the second POP. The first POPand the second POP are accessed from the Internet using a same IPaddress. The request is re-assigned to the second POP for delivery ofthe content object to the end user.

Further areas of applicability of the present disclosure will becomeapparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It shouldbe understood that the detailed description and specific examples, whileindicating various embodiments, are intended for purposes ofillustration only and are not intended to necessarily limit the scope ofthe disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is described in conjunction with the appendedfigures:

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of a contentdistribution system;

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of a data processingsystem;

FIG. 3 depicts a diagram of an embodiment that demonstrates data flows;

FIG. 4 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of a processing ring;

FIG. 5 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment that details portions ofa content delivery network (CDN);

FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of an embodiment of a process foroperation of the data processing system;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of an embodiment of a process thatconfigures an internal processing subscriber;

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of an embodiment of a process for settingup a data agent and using the data agent to report information to amessaging queue; and

FIGS. 9A and 9B illustrate flowcharts of embodiments of a process forimproving upon Anycast routing.

In the appended figures, similar components and/or features may have thesame reference label. Further, various components of the same type maybe distinguished by following the reference label by a dash and a secondlabel that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the firstreference label is used in the specification, the description isapplicable to any one of the similar components having the same firstreference label irrespective of the second reference label.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The ensuing description provides preferred exemplary embodiment(s) only,and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configurationof the disclosure. Rather, the ensuing description of the preferredexemplary embodiment(s) will provide those skilled in the art with anenabling description for implementing a preferred exemplary embodiment.It is understood that various changes may be made in the function andarrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope asset forth in the appended claims.

Referring first to FIG. 1, a block diagram of an embodiment of a contentdistribution system 100 is shown. The content originator 106 offloadsdelivery of the content objects to a content delivery network (CDN) 110in this embodiment. The content originator 106 produces and/ordistributes content objects and includes a content provider 108, acontent site 116, and an origin server 112. The CDN 110 can cache,redistribute and/or host content in various embodiments for thirdparties to offload delivery and typically provide better quality ofservice (QoS).

In this embodiment, the content distribution system 100 locates thecontent objects (or portions thereof) and distributes the contentobjects to an end user system 102 or processing subscribers (not shown).The content objects are dynamically cached or processed within the CDN110 to improve the QoS without replicating the whole content object,unless subsequently requested by the end user 128. A content object isany content file or content stream and could include, for example,video, pictures, data, audio, software, and/or text. For example, acontent object could be gathered information or a content stream from amessaging queue. The content object could be live, delayed or stored.The content object could be gathered information, which is streamed toor from the CDN 110 in real time or near real time. Throughout thespecification, references may be made to a content object, content,content stream and/or content file, but it is to be understood thatthose terms could be used interchangeably wherever they may appear.

Many content providers 108 use a CDN 110 to deliver the content objectsover the Internet 104 to end users 128. The CDN 110 includes a number ofpoints of presence (POPs) 120, which are geographically distributedthrough the content distribution system 100 to deliver content. Variousembodiments may have any number of POPs 120 within the CDN 110 that aregenerally distributed in various locations around the Internet 104 to beproximate to end user systems 102. Multiple POPs 120 use the same IPaddress such that an Anycast routing scheme is used to find a POP 120likely to be close to the end user in a network sense for each request.In addition to the Internet 104, a wide area network (WAN) 114 or otherbackbone may couple the POPs 120 with each other and also couple thePOPs 120 with other parts of the CDN 110.

When an end user 128 requests a web page through its respective end usersystem 102, the request for the web page is passed either directly orindirectly via the Internet 104 to the content originator 106. Thecontent originator 106 is the source or re-distributor of contentobjects. The content site 116 is a \ web site accessible by the end usersystem 102. In one embodiment, the content site 116 could be a web sitewhere the content is viewable with a web browser. In other embodiments,the content site 116 could be accessible with application software otherthan a web browser. The content provider 108 directs content requests toa CDN 110 after they are made or formulates the delivery path byembedding the delivery path into the URLs for a web page in thisembodiment. In any event, the request for content is handed over to theCDN 110 in this embodiment by using an Anycast IP address correspondingto two or more POPs 120.

Once the request for a content object is passed to the CDN 110, therequest is associated with a particular POP 120 within the CDN 110 usingthe Anycast routing scheme. The particular POP 120 may retrieve theportion of the content object from the content provider 108.Alternatively, the content provider 108 may directly provide the contentobject to the CDN 110 and its associated POPs 120 through prepopulation,i.e., in advance of the first request. In this embodiment, the contentobjects are provided to the CDN 110 and stored in one or more CDNservers such that the portion of the requested content may be servedfrom the CDN 110. The CDN servers include edge servers that actuallyserve end user requests. The origin server 112 holds a copy of eachcontent object for the content originator 106. Periodically, the contentof the origin server 112 may be reconciled with the CDN 110 through acache, hosting and/or pre-population algorithm. Some content providerscould use an origin server within the CDN 110 to host the content andavoid the need to maintain a copy.

Once the content object is retrieved from the origin server 112 by theCDN 110, the content object is stored within the particular POP 120 andis served from that POP 120 to the end user system 102. Streamed contentobjects can have real time or near real time information or can bepreviously stored. The end user system 102 receives the content objectand processes it for use by the end user 128 or an automated processingsystems. The end user system 102 could be a personal computer, mediaplayer, handheld computer, Internet appliance, phone, IPTV set top, webserver, processing system, streaming radio or any other device thatreceives and/or plays content objects. In some embodiments, a number ofthe end user systems 102 could be networked together. Although thisembodiment only shows a single content originator 106 and a single CDN110, it is to be understood that there could be many of each in variousembodiments.

This CDN 110 allows efficient gathering of real time information fordistribution both inside and outside of the CDN 110. External dataagents could provide information to different POPs 120 in differentcities that is aggregated by the CDN 110 into a content stream from amessaging queue 226 for processing in yet another location by receivingthe content stream from a nearby POP 120. The WAN 114 can be far moreefficient and secure when distributing content between POPs 120 inembodiments. Additionally, processing subscribers can get the benefit ofsimilar information being available in a content stream to provide abroader sampling of information to base processing decisions upon.

Referring to FIG. 2, an embodiment of a data processing system 200 isshown that uses the CDN 110 infrastructure to efficiently shareinformation in real time or near real time. The data processing system200 performs internal data gathering and processing of streamed contentalong with external data gathering and processing in this embodiment.Other embodiments could have either all external or all internal datagathering. The data processing system 200 allows reporting timelyinformation that might be of interest to the reporting party or otherparties. The data processing system 200 can monitor gathered informationfrom several sources to allow it to make timely business and/orprocessing decisions based upon that information. For example, reportson the health of various links on the Internet could be gathered andreported to the data processing system 200 from a number of sources toallow the data processing system 200 to route delivery requests to edgeservers that are relatively free of Internet congestion. By gatheringinformation from many sources, the reliability of the gatheredinformation increases in the aggregate such that subscribers can use theaggregated information or content stream to make better decisions in oneembodiment.

The CDN 110 is used for a number of purposes to include the aggregationand distribution of gathered information as discussed above.Additionally, the CDN 110 performs processing of the gatheredinformation for internal purposes or as a service for others in thisembodiment. Although not detailed in FIG. 2, the CDN 110 can performmore traditional tasks like distributing content for others by cachingcontent from origin servers or hosting content as the origin server.Those blocks associated with distributing content are not detailed inthe CDN 110 shown in FIG. 2. Other embodiments of the CDN might notperform the traditional content delivery instead focusing the CDN onperforming as a clearinghouse for gathered information in various stagesof processing and aggregation.

Internally, the CDN 110 gathers information from one or more internaldata agents 208B. The internal data agents 208B gather informationrelating to such things as delivery performance, resource loading,bandwidth cost, customer provisioning, business intelligence, etc. FIG.2 shows a single internal and external data agent 208 for simplicity,but it is to be understood that there could be any number of internaland external data agents 208. The internal data agents 208B can reportthe gathered information in real-time, near real-time or along anothertime line. To account for any delay in reporting information, a timestamp or staleness indicator can inform others of how timely theinformation was sampled. The CDN 110 can opt to allow third parties touse internally or externally gathered information that is aggregatedwithin the CDN 110 by subscription of the external processingsubscriber(s) 212A for the third party.

A command and control (CC) interface 238 configures the gathered inputinformation to and output of content streams from the CDN 110. APIs foraccepting gathered information and providing content streams areprovided to third parties external to the CDN 110 who want to subscribeto content streams. The CDN 110 or a third party can designed an as yetundefined APIs using the CC interface 238. The CDN 110 can also defineauthorization and authentication parameters using the CC interface 238such as authentication, authorization, login, and/or data encryption. CCinformation is passed to the various data agents 208 and processingsubscribers 212 through a channel separate from the gathered informationor content stream in this embodiment, but other embodiments could embedCC information in these communication channels. The CC informationallows throttling information reporting frequency, specifying formatsfor information and content streams, deactivation of a data agent 208 orprocessing subscriber 212, updating authentication and authorization,etc.

The various content streams that are available can be researched andexplored through the CC interface 238. Those content stream selectionsfor a particular processing subscriber 212 are stored in the queuesubscription information 222. The CDN 110 then routes selected contentstreams to processing subscribers 212 that have selected delivery of agiven content stream. Additionally, the CDN 110 also supports historicalqueries of the various content streams that are stored in an historicaldatastore 234 as gathered by an archive data agent 208C. The archivedata agent 208C supports running of hypothetical queries againsthistorical messaging queue information to test how algorithms running ata processing subscriber 212 would react, for example, to content streamsgathered in the past. Through the CC interface 238 various contentstreams can be selected for archiving into the historical datastore 234.

External data agents 208A can also gather information that is reportedto the CDN 110 in real-time, near real-time or along another time line.There is a defined API between the data agent 208 and the CDN 110. Eachtype of information or variable collected by CDN 110 falls within adefined API or multiple APIs. In some cases, the CC interface 238 isused to define additional variables to modify an API that might be ofuse to processing subscribers 212. The additional variables can bepassed to all processing subscribes 212 or just a subset. For example, adata agent 208 may report last mile bandwidth achieved and a subscriberidentifier associate with the test, but define the subscriber identifieras a private variable that would not be passed to processing subscribers212 outside its domain. Processing subscribers 212 within its domainwould receive the subscriber identifier along with bandwidth reportsreported by its own data agents 208. Encryption and/or unique addressingof content streams or sub-streams can be used to hide the privatevariables within the messaging queues.

Some types of information may have standard APIs. The developer canspecify or suggest a new API through the CC interface 238 as new sourcesof information are characterized and provided. An example of an API thatreports delivery health information could be one that accepts source IPaddress, destination IP address, streaming rate, latency, reliability,and sample time. With enough data agents 208 reporting delivery healthfrom within the CDN 110 or externally, an aggregation of thatinformation can be used for any number of purposes.

Some embodiments charge for receiving content streams by externalprocessing subscribers 212A. The cost can be per record, per byte or persubscription. Some embodiments offset credit for gathered informationprovided from external data agents 208A against the cost for contentstreams to external processing subscribers 212A. For example, eachgathered information record provided to the CDN 110 would result in afree data record from the content stream in one embodiment. Generally,data in the aggregated content stream becomes a more reliable samplingwith more entities reporting information. The CDN 110 can negotiatepricing for information provided and information consumed throughcosting information accessible through the CC interface 238.

External data agents 208A communicate with the CDN 110 through aninterface or data input adapter 230. FIG. 2 only shows a single externaldata agent 208A, although it is to be understood that there could behundreds, thousands or millions of external data agents 208 in variousembodiments. The communication with the data input adapter 230 can beencrypted or not. For example, a socket using a TCP connection could beused. In addition to TCP, other transport layer protocols like SCTP andUDP could be used in some embodiments to intake the gatheredinformation. A protocol such as SSL could be used to protect theinformation over the TCP connection. Authentication and authorizationcan be performed to any external data agent 208A interfacing to the CDN110. The data input adapter 230 receives the information from anexternal data agent 208A by providing the API and any encryption,authorization, and/or authentication. In some cases, the data inputadapter 230 reformats or rearranges the information from the externaldata agent 208A. Although not shown, some embodiments could use a datainput adapter 230 for an internal data agent 208B.

The CDN 110 has a number of POPs 120 geographically distributed suchthat most external data agents 208A and processing subscribers 212A arerelatively close to a POP 120. External data agents 208A and externalprocessing subscribers 212A are assigned to a particular POP 120 usingAnycast, DNS resolution, redirection, or other methods to use a nearbyPOP 120 with adequate QoS. The POP 120 to use for gathered informationor content streams may be chosen to reduce the number of POPs 120sending a particular stream, limit loading of a POP 120, speed latencyin gathering or streaming of information, or satisfy other requirements.A processing ring could be fixed to the specified POP to use for eachdata agent 208 and processing subscriber 212.

The messaging queue 226 takes all the information from the data agents208 and distributes the gathered information as a content stream to anyprocessing subscribers 212 that have requested the content stream fromthe messaging queue 226. The messaging queue 226 may be in a single POP120, a central location or distributed among a number of POPs 120. Onlycontent streams within the messaging queue 226 that a particularprocessing subscriber 212 has subscribed to may be read by thatprocessing subscriber 212 if received at all. Gathered information sentto the messaging queue 226 is processed and returned in a content streamin a fraction of a second by the messaging queue 226. Variousmulticasting and routing techniques can be used to distribute a contentstream from the messaging queue 226 that a number of processingsubscribers 212 have requested. Protocols such as Multicast or multipleUnicast could be used to distributed streams within the messaging queue226. Additionally, transport layer protocols like TCP, SCTP and UDPcould be used in various embodiments.

Through the CC interface 238, an external or internal processingsubscriber 212A, 212B can be assigned one or more content streams withinthe messaging queue 226. A content stream is a particular type ofmessages in a particular category. For example, six data agents 208could all report content delivery metrics as information passed throughthe messaging queue 226 into a given content stream. One or moreprocessing subscribers 212 could subscribe and receive the contentstream to process the information and make a decision and/or feed theoutput from the processing as gathered information fed back into themessaging queue 226. Through the CC interface 238 a developer can searchthe available content streams or specify a new content stream and itsAPI. The new content stream might be determined by processing a numberof existing content streams with a processing subscriber 212.

The CDN 110 has internal processing subscribers 212B that processassigned content streams to perform functions within the CDN 110.Internal processing subscribers 212B could perform functions such asprovisioning new accounts or improving routing based upon one or morecontent streams from the messaging queue 226. Processing rules 216-2 areprovided to the internal processing subscriber 212B to providealgorithms, rules, instructions, and/or software that define how thesubscribed content streams are processed.

Processing rules 216-2 can decide filtering and weighting of recordsfrom the content stream. To the extent that decisions are made basedupon analysis of the content stream, each data record is time stamped toreflect when the information was gathered such that additionalcredibility could be given to more recent results, for example. Otherembodiments may filter out records in the content stream that are froman unreliable source or stale. For example, a particular contributor ofinformation may prove to have less than optimal gathered information andthat could be weighted very low or removed altogether. For externalprocessing subscribers 212A, the filtering could be done by the dataoutput adapter 242 to reduce bandwidth passing from the CDN 110.

Internal processing subscribers 212B may additionally process one ormore content streams to provide different information to feed back intothe messaging queue 226 to be part of a different content stream. Forexample, hundreds of external data agents 208 could providegeographically correlated temperature measurements that are put into acontent stream on the messaging queue 226. An internal processingsubscriber 212B could receive the content stream and process it intotopographic heat map that is supplied back as gathered informationpassed onto the messaging queue 226, for possible use by other internaland external processing subscribers 212. The various data agents 208 andprocessing subscribers 212 arranged in a chain form a processing loop.

External processing subscribers 212A act similarly to internalprocessing subscribers 212B, but for third parties that are not part ofthe CDN 110. The external processing subscribers 212A interface with theCDN 110 through data output adapters 242. Data output adapters 242 canperform authentication, authorization, reformatting, filtering,encryption, etc. External processing subscribers 212A can ingest contentstreams from the messaging queue 226, but they can also act as anexternal data agent in some cases by returning processed informationback into the messaging queue 226. Processing rules 216-1 define how theexternal processing subscribers 212A will process the subscribed contentstreams.

As mentioned above, the CC interface 238 allows the CDN 110 to queryhistorical messaging queue 226 information. An archive data agent 208Clistens to the messaging queue 226 to store content streams in ahistorical database 234. The historical database 234 may store contentstreams for varying amounts of time and may not store all contentstreams. Different content streams may be stored for different amountsof time. For example, temperature readings for a refrigerator may be puton the messaging queue 226 but only stored if beyond some threshold thatcorresponds to a failure.

With reference to FIG. 3, an embodiment of a diagram 300 demonstratingdata flows is shown. Gathered information 304 from a number of dataagents 208 (not shown) is sent to the CDN 110. Additional gatheredinformation 304 may be gathered within the CDN 110 by internal dataagents 208B as described above. A messaging queue 226 is produced by theCDN 110 having a number of content streams 308. Processing subscribers212 (not shown) outside and within the CDN 110 receive the streams 308in real time or near real time.

Referring next to FIG. 4, a block diagram of an embodiment of aprocessing ring 400 is shown. This example of a processing ring 400gathers information 304 from n data agents 208. Some of the information304 goes through up to three rounds of processing before the end of theprocessing ring is reached. Some of the processing subscribers 212-2,212-3, 212-m, 212-5 do not provide their further processed informationback to the messaging queue to act as an end point for the informationflow that are sometimes referred to as “listening subscribers” herein.Although there are three messaging queues 226 shown, it is to beunderstood these could the same messaging queue or any number ofdifferent messaging queues. The messaging queues 226 could be whollywithin the CDN 110 or partially outside the CDN 110 in variousembodiments. Certainly, portions of the messaging queues 226 areaccessible to external processing subscribers 212A as content streams308.

In one example, the data agents 208 could be reporting the time it takesto ping a given address. This gathered information 304 is reported inreal time (i.e., less than 1 second) or near real time (i.e., less than10 seconds after gathering) and coupled to the messaging queue 226. Inmost cases, the gathered information 304 is time stamped to indicatefreshness of the raw information. For example, the time the test isperformed could be memorialized in the time stamp. Each data agent 208would report its address, the given address to ping, a ping time, andwhen the ping test was performed to the messaging queue 226 in thisexample. The various data agents 208 could be in several POPs 120 of theCDN 110 and third party systems coupled to the CDN 110, for example, anorigin server that hosts content could report the responsiveness topings from its location. Through aggregation of many ping results, thehealth of the Internet can be monitored in real time or near real timein this example.

In this example, there are two processing subscribers 212-1, 212-2 thatare listening to the content streams 308 that are reporting pingresults. The second processing subscriber 212-2 is a listeningsubscriber that does not provide further information to the messagingqueue 226, but takes the stream 308 and uses it, for example, to updaterouting tables for a router. For example, routing tables could beupdated by the second processing subscriber 212-2 to specify what aremost likely to the most responsive routes on the Internet in real timeor near real time. The first processing subscriber 212 takes the stream308 with ping results from a number of data sources and furtherprocesses it by grouping results by autonomous systems (AS) number andreports that gathered and processed information 304 back into themessaging queue 226. Average results grouped by AS number is gatheredinformation that takes far less bandwidth to report to others and avoidshaving to inspect each and every record in the content stream 308 byprocessing subscribers 212 further along in the processing ring 400.

There are m processing subscribers 212 listening to the content stream308 of ping results summarized by AS number. A fourth processingsubscriber 212-4 further processes the stream 308 by adding geographicinformation for the AS numbers. This processing correlates the pingresults to geographic estimates for the AS numbers. That gatheredinformation 304 is provided back to the messaging queue 226. A fifthprocessing subscriber 212-5 listens to the content stream 308 from themessaging queue 226 to receive geographically correlated ping results.Although this processing ring 400 has three levels of processing, otherembodiments could have more or less. Additionally, data agents 208 couldprovide any number of different information 304 that is used in theprocessing.

Referring next to FIG. 5, an embodiment of a block diagram detailingportions of the CDN 110. This embodiment of the CDN 110 shows two POPs120, but typically there would be more POPs 120 distributed across theInternet 104 to increase the likelihood a POP 120 is nearby (in anetwork sense) to the end user systems 102, external processingsubscriber 212A or external data agent 208A. Each POP 120 can passrequests, content objects, status information, gathered information 304,content streams 308 etc. between POPs 120 using the Internet 104 and aWAN 114. The WAN 114 couples together the POPs 120 using a privatebackbone in this embodiment, but could include public networks in otherembodiments.

Each POP 120 includes a number of edge servers 530 that service requestsfrom end user systems 102. Through the Anycast routing scheme, requestsfor content find a particular POP 120 of the CDN 110 that is likelynearby in a network sense to the requestor. This is often a POP 120 wellsuited to supply the content object, but in some cases another POP isbetter suited for some reason. For example, an Internet service provider(ISP) may use a proxy in a location geographically distant from the enduser system 102 that causes the request for content to find a POP 120near the proxy instead of near the end user system 102 when Anycastresolution is used to find a nearby POP 120.

The edge servers 530 serve content objects, receive generatedinformation 304 and relay content streams 308. The data input adapter230 and data output adapter 242 functionality can be implemented withinthe edge server 530 in this embodiment. The messaging queue(s) 226 areavailable typically from the WAN 114 in unfiltered form. Thoseindividual content streams 308 subscribed to are provided to a externalprocessing subscriber 212A by the edge server 530 in this embodiment.The processing subscribers 212 subscribed to a given content stream 308could be grouped to a single edge server 530 where practical.

In this embodiment, the switch fabric 540 receives a request for acontent object and assigns an edge server 530 that is typically locatedin the POP 120 that originally received the request, but notnecessarily. The switch fabric 540 can alternatively assign the requestto an edge server 530 in another POP 120. A table within the switchfabric 540 indicates a favored POP 120 for certain IP addresses, ASnumbers and/or ranges of IP addresses. Where there is no favored POPindicated or the favored POP originally received the request, it ispresumed that Anycast acted properly and the POP 120 receiving therequest would route the request to an edge server 530 for fulfillment.

An internal data agent 208B monitors the incoming requests for contentand notes how Anycast is resolving. Other embodiments could use otherways to resolve to a POP 120 such as single-stage DNS, two-stage DNS,request redirect, etc. The internal data agent 208B notes the IP addressof the requestor, resolution technique and the time of the request forreporting that gathered information 308 to the messaging queue 226.Although not shown, external data agents 208A could observe how Anycastis resolving for requests from various IP addresses and report thatgathered information 304 to the messaging queue 226. The gatheredinformation includes in each record, the requesting IP address, thelocation of the POP 120 found with Anycast, the protocol used in therequest, the particular request, the time that the request was receivedand latency, bandwidth, packet loss, jitter, and other QoS factorsrelated to the delivery. An API to the messaging queue 226 is used togather the records.

To determine if a POP 120 that didn't originally receive the request fora content object is better suited to serve the content object, there area number of techniques to choose a better POP 120. Third-party locationservices provide approximate geographic locations for IP addresses, ASnumbers and/or portions of IP addresses. An external data agent 208Awith the location service provides information 304 when IP addresses, ASnumbers and/or groups of IP addresses are correlated to a geographiclocation. As correlations are made by the service between locations andIP address(es), the external data agent 208A provides that gatheredinformation 304. The internal processing subscriber 212B receives thecontent stream 308 from the location service(s) along with the contentstream from the internal data agents 208B in each POP 120 that reportAnycast resolutions.

In addition to using third party location services external to the CDN110, feedback from deliveries can be used to determine better POPs 120for particular IP addresses and/or ranges of addresses. An internal dataagent 208B (not shown) within each edge server 530 can determine thelatency, bandwidth, packet loss, jitter, and other QoS factors for aparticular delivery from a POP 120 and edge server 530 to a particularIP address. That gathered information 304 can be encapsulated into acontent stream 308 that is received by the internal processingsubscriber 212B. Additionally, third parties making deliveries outsideof the CDN 110 with their own servers or using another CDN can provideinformation with an external data agent 208A that is coupled to theinternal processing subscriber 212B by the messaging queue 226. Theswitch fabric 540 could route according to the suggestion of thelocation service and where there is no suggestion, switch fabric couldroute the request to the POP 120 providing the best QoS for that IPaddress or similar IP addresses based upon information from the contentstream 308.

In this embodiment, the internal processing subscriber 212B receives acontent stream 308 from one or more geolocation services. Additionally,gathered information 304 from individual deliveries within or outsidethe CDN 110 are sent in one or more streams 308 to the internalprocessing subscribers 212B in each POP 120. Processing rules 516indicate how to interpret the stream 308. For example, there may beweighting in the processing rules to favor delivery results gatheredwithin the CDN 110 in contrast to delivery results gathered outside theCDN 110. Results from deliveries or from geolocation services could beaged in favor of newer results in appreciation of the changingconditions on the Internet 104 in one embodiment.

TABLE Routing Preferences for Switch Fabric POP(s) Content Object TypeFavored POP 000-063.xxx.xxx.xxx All Denver 064-127.xxx.xxx.xxx All NewYork 128-171.xxx.xxx.xxx All Phoenix 172-256.xxx.xxx.xxx All San Jose128.234.343.xxx High-bitrate streamed Chicago Small file download TempeVoIP phone call Los Angeles Web page Phoenix 128.234.343.123High-bitrate streamed New York Flash Denver VoIP phone call DenverRemainder San Jose 129.xxx.xxx.xxx High-bitrate streamed Tempe Smallfile download Tempe Large file download Denver Remainder Chicago130.001.xxx.xxx Low-bitrate streamed Los Angeles Small file download SanJose Gaming Los Angeles Web page San Jose

For different types of content objects, different metrics may be moreimportant for deciding the favored POP. For example, streaming videogenerally favors higher bandwidth over latency. When the switch fabric540 receives a request for streaming video, the switch fabric 540 mayprefer one POP 120, but could prefer a different POP 120 for a requestfor a small content file download or content stream 308. The above Tableshows an example of some of the routing preferences within the switchfabric 540 that would be used in choosing an edge server 530 between thePOPs 120. It is to be understood that there would be far more tableentries in a typical embodiment of routing preferences. In some cases,there are ranges of various sizes and even specific addresses specifiedfor special handling with the switch fabric 540.

Where there are multiple entries for a particular IP address, the mostspecific range would be favored over the broader ranges. For example, arequest from IP address 128.234.343.123 would have the entry for thatspecific address and entries for the 128-171.xxx.xxx.xxx and128.234.343.xxx ranges. In this case, the 128.234.343.123 entry would beused instead of the entry for any range because IP address is morespecific. If the request were for a small file download however, theentry for the 128.234.343.xxx range would be used since the128.234.343.123 entry has no routing preference for a small filedownload such that the delivery would be from the Tempe POP regardlessof which POP 120 originally received the request using Anycast. As thecontent stream 308 is received, the content stream 308 is processed andapplied to routing preferences for all entries that correspond to theinformation gathered for a particular address such that the Table ischanging in real time or near real time.

This embodiment shows an internal processing subscriber 212B in each POP120 locally processing the content stream 308 to adjust the switchfabric 540 for those times that Anycast does not resolve a request to afavored POP 120. Other embodiments could adjust how the switch fabric540 resolves requests in different ways. There could be embodiments thatdon't have an internal processing subscriber 212B in each POP 120 forprogramming the switch fabric 540. One location in the CDN 100 wouldhave the internal processing subscriber 212B that would also include aninternal data agent 208B (not shown) that sends information 304 to thosePOPs 120 not processing the rules locally to affect the switch fabric540.

The internal processing subscriber 212B in each POP 120 could producethe table of preferred POPs 120 according to the processing rules 516applied to the content stream 308. The table of preferred POPs 120 forvarious IP addresses of requests are routed by the switch fabric 540 tothe preferred POP 120 to effectively override the Anycast distributionof requests. On occasion, the geolocation service and Anycast routingmay not find a POP 120 with adequate QoS, better QoS or the best QoS.When QoS falls below a threshold in one or more metrics, and the Anycastand geolocation service is not finding an adequate solution above thethreshold, another algorithm can be used to find a better POP 120 toperform the delivery for an IP address or range of IP addresses. Theswitch fabric 540 can this algorithm to assign a POP 120 in a random,unpredictable or round-robin fashion. One embodiment might assign thenext closest POP 120.

After the delivery with the POP 120 chosen in any of these fashions, theresults of how the delivery was performed is reported back to theinternal processing subscriber 212B with the appropriate content stream308. If the delivery has higher QoS, the POP 120 would become the newchoice for similar requests. In some cases, a number of different POPs120 could be tested with actual deliveries or test deliveries of contentobjects. This probing for better POP 120 assignments could be doneperiodically even if QoS doesn't fall below a threshold as theperformance of the Internet 104 changes over time. Requests from IPaddresses with historically unpredictable QoS could be targeted moreoften to probe for a better POP 120.

With reference to FIG. 6, an embodiment of a process 600 for operationof the data processing system 200 is shown. The depicted portion of theprocess begins in block 604 where the developer would use the CCinterface 238 to manage the interaction between the data agents 208 andthe messaging queue 226. The developer inputs the API design where thereis not one pre-defined, address of the data agent 108, authenticationand authorization information for any external data agents 208A, etc.into the CC interface 238. The API design specifies the types ofvariables, how they are formatted and other information to describe thegathered information 304 in the data feed to the messaging queue 226.The API design also defines how the gathered information 304 isportrayed when sent from the messaging queue 226 as a content stream308. The content stream 308 has records or samples that are defined bythe API design.

In block 608, the developer chooses the available content streams 308 inthe messaging queue 226 for use by a particular processing subscriber212. A given content stream 308 chosen may only have records from thedata agents 208 previously configured in block 604 or could includerecords of third parties from other data agents 208. Each record in thecontent stream 308 could be serialized or include the data agent addressas a mechanism to differentiate records. Additionally, the developerinteracts with the data processing system 200 to input API information,address of the processing subscriber 212, authentication and/orauthorization information, etc. into the CC interface 238 to configure aparticular processing subscriber 212 to interact with the messagingqueue 226 of the CDN 110. All queue subscription information is recordedfor each processing subscriber 212 in the queue subscription informationdatabase 222.

The input gathered information 304 and output content stream 308 for themessaging queue 226 is configured at this point by the developer. Thedeveloper also configures the processing rules 216 for the processingsubscriber 212 to use when operating upon its content stream(s) 308 fromthe messaging queue 226. The processing rules 216 may or may not bestored within the CDN 110. The developer may find it helpful to checkthe rule operation against the historical datastore 234 when designingthe rules to provide test results from a prior content stream(s) 308.Many levels of data agents 208 and processing subscribers 212 can bedefined in blocks 604 and 608 to define a processing ring.

With reference to block 612, operation of the developer's dataprocessing system begins when the data agent(s) 208 reports gatheredinformation 304. The data processing system 200 could have any number ofdata agents 208 internal or external to the CDN 110. External dataagents 208A generally use data input adapters 230 as described above.External processing subscribers 212A generally use data output adapters242. Any configuration of the external data agents 208A or externalprocessing subscribers 212A can be performed with the CC interface 238.

Where the data agent 208 is an external data agent 208A, as determinedin block 628, a data adapter 230 checks, reformats and/or performs otherprocessing on the gathered information 304 in block 616. The checks mayinclude authentication and/or authorization, for example, or checks onformatting, data types, valid data ranges, etc. Internal data agents208B, as determined in block 628, can optionally skip block 616 goingdirectly to block 620. After the data is available within the CDN 110and optionally checked by a data adapter 230, the gathered information304 is injected into the messaging queue 226 in block 620. The messagingqueue 226 distributes gathered information in block 624 that iscomprised of a series of messages, packets, samples, or records in aparticular category that are collectively referred to as a contentstream 308. Because gathered information 304 is produced by the dataagents 208 often in real time and reported to the messaging queue 226without delay, the gathered information 304 is quickly made available inreal-time or near real-time, for example, the data may be less than one,two, five, ten, or twenty seconds old when it enters the messaging queue226.

According to the subscription information 212, the content streams 308are distributed in multicast and/or unicast fashion to the variousprocessing subscribers 212 within the CDN 110 or anywhere on theInternet in block 624. Typically, multicast is used for processingsubscribers 212 within the CDN 110 or that have networks that supportmulticast, and parallel unicast streams are used for external processingsubscribers 212B that do not have network support for multicast. Eachprocessing subscriber 212 can only read the content streams 308 in block628 that it subscribes to. Authentication and/or authorization using,for example, encryption, can be use to protect streams 308 orsub-streams from exposure to non-subscribers. According to theprocessing rules 216, each processing subscriber 212 operates on its oneor more content streams 308 from the massaging queue 226 in block 632.

A processing subscriber 212 can optionally return the processedinformation 304 back into the messaging queue 226 in block 636 by alsoacting as a data agent 208 unlike listening subscribers that do notinclude capability to act as data agent 208. Although not required,processing subscribers 212 typically perform an operation or action inblock 640 based, at least in part, on the information 304 gathered fromthe content stream 308. Any type of action such as ordering supplies,granting access, provisioning a customer, closing down systems, routingtraffic differently, choosing of repurposing resources, etc. could beperformed in various embodiments.

Referring next to FIG. 7, an embodiment of a process 700 is shown thatconfigures an internal processing subscriber 212B to aid in improvedrouting of a request for content to an edge server 530 who services thatrequest. When explaining the process 700, an example of improving uponAnycast routing is used in conjunction with the embodiment shown in FIG.5. The depicted portion of the process 700 begins in block 704 where thecontent streams 308 are chosen to be supplied to the internal processingsubscriber 212B of each POP 120. Content streams 308 having deliverymetrics and location estimations are chosen for delivery to the internalprocessing subscriber 212B from the messaging queue 226. For example,the gathered information from: (1) geolocation services that provideestimates of location based upon an IP address, and/or (2)internal/external information gathered on content delivery between twoIP addresses could be passed to the internal processing subscriber 212Bfrom the messaging queue 226.

In this example, each POP 120 includes an internal data agent 208B thatgathers information 304 on each content delivery. Although shownseparate from the internal processing subscriber 212B, the internal dataagent 208B could be integral to the internal processing subscriber 212B.The internal data agent 208B is configured to report content deliveryresults information 304 to the messaging queue 226. This embodimentcould use gathered information 304 gathered from deliveries outside theCDN 110, but that is not necessary as Anycast routing could be refinedsolely from internally gathered information 304 provided by each POP120.

In block 708, processing rules 516 are designed. The internal processingsubscriber 212B uses the processing rules 516 to analyze, process,reformat, etc. the subscribed content streams 308. For example, acontent stream 308 reporting external delivery results between two IPaddresses could have a processing rule that matches the source IPaddress with the most similarly situated POP 120 by inferring that thesource IP address was close to the POP's IP address and those deliveryresults could be used by that POP 120 if there weren't any internallygathered delivery results that were deemed more reliable. For example,the IP address of the source of a particular delivery could bedetermined to correspond to a Denver located POP 120 and the deliveryresult could be presumed to be similar to a delivery results from theDenver POP 120 of the CDN 110. If the delivery from the Denver source IPaddress were better than that seen from other POPs 120 of the CDN 110,the routing-preferences Table could be updated to improve how the switchfabric 540 assigns the next request to an edge server 530 when theDenver POP 120 is likely to have higher QoS for the requestor's IPaddress or a range of similarly situated IP addresses. If the PhoenixPOP 120 received a request that indicated that the Denver POP 120delivered to the IP address of the request better, for example, theswitch fabric 540 would send the request to the Denver POP 120 forfulfillment.

The messaging queue 226 distributes the various content streams 308 tothe various processing subscribers 212 that have requested those contentstreams 308. In block 712, the various streams 308 that the internalprocessing subscriber 212B has signed-up for are received as theinformation 304 is reported through the messaging queue 226. In thisexample, the internal processing subscriber 212B in each POP 120 wouldreceive a multicasted content stream 308 from the WAN 114, whichsupports multicasting protocols. The processing rules 516 are applied tothe streams 308 as information is received by the internal processingsubscribers 212B. The routing preferences Table in the switch fabric 540are updated in block 720 as information in the content streams 308 isprocessed to provide real time or near real time reaction to how theInternet 104 is delivering content at any moment. After block 720,processing loops back to block 712 to gather more records from thecontent stream 308 for processing in a loop of blocks 712, 716 and 720.

With reference to FIG. 8, an embodiment of a process 800 for setting upa data agent 208 and using the data agent 208 to report gatheredinformation 304 to the messaging queue 226 is shown. When explaining theprocess 800, an example used for improving Anycast routing will be usedin conjunction with the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, but it is to beunderstood that the general idea of a messaging queue 226 could be usedfor many different purposes. The depicted portion of the process 800begins in block 804 where the data agent 208 is configured to gatherinformation. The data agent 804 is typically software that may interfaceto sensors, data sensing equipment and/or data gathering equipment ofvarious configurations. In this example, the data agent 208 measuresvarious parameters associated with delivering a content object betweentwo IP address. A physical location of the source IP address andpossibly even the location of the destination IP address may also beknown and reported to the API as a data record in the gatheredinformation 304. Other demographic information on the sender and/orreceiver could be reported in addition to physical location.

The record for a particular delivery is sent as gathered information 304and can be determined using an edge server 530 and/or information fromthe end user system 102. For example, a set top box that acts as an enduser system 102 could report to the edge server 530 the latency and datarate of the delivery of a content object. Some embodiments could testthe link between edge server 530 and end user system 102. The data agent208 is configured to reformat the gathered information according to anAPI of the CDN 110.

The data agent 208 is integrated into the CDN 110 in block 808.Integration could include interaction with the CC interface 238 asdescribed above. The data agent 208 may be a dedicated server or a pieceof test equipment or may be software that runs on an existing server orpiece of test equipment. Integration of the data agent 208 may includeproviding authorization and/or authentication information that anexternal data agent 208A would use when reporting information to the CDN110. In block 812, the delivery performance is monitored between two IPaddresses. Monitoring of delivery can take place on either end of thedelivery and be reported in the record. The data agent 208 reportsinformation 304 regarding each delivery to the messaging queue 226 inblock 816.

The gathered delivery information 304 is converted into a stream 308 bythe CDN 110 in block 820 as the messaging queue 226. Some embodimentscan mask the provider of the gathered information 304 by modifying orobscuring IP addresses, business names, identifiers or other informationthat could be traced back to the provider. Additionally, privacy rulescould be applied to gathered information to sanitize it prior toreaching the stream 308. The privacy rules could allow some subscribersto see some information while others could not see that information. Thevarious processing subscribers 212 that request the content stream 308are sent the content stream 308 using parallel unicast streams,broadcast and/or multicast in block 824. For processing subscribers 212within the CDN 110, the streams can be sent with multicast and withparallel unicast outside the CDN 110 in one embodiment. After block 824,processing loops back to block 812 to loop through blocks 812, 816, 820and 824 to report records as gathered information 304 for distributionas content streams 308 by the messaging queue 226.

Referring next to FIG. 9A, a flowchart of an embodiment of a process900-1 for improving upon Anycast routing is shown. The depicted portionof the process 900-1 begins in block 904 where an end user system 102requests translation of a domain name into an IP address from a domainname service (DNS). The DNS performs a lookup to find the IP address forthe domain in block 908. The IP address corresponds to a number of POPs120 for the CDN 110 according to an Anycast routing scheme. Once the IPaddress is known, the end user system 102 requests the content object atthe IP address of many POPs 120 in block 912.

Only one POP 120 ultimately receives the content request as the variousrouters will choose the routing to find the POP 120. The content isrequested from the POP in block 916. In block 920, the switch fabric 540determines the edge server 530 to route the request to. The edge server530 is in the current POP 120 if Anycast routing has not beenoverridden. Loading, edge server capability, cache utilization,bandwidth utilization, random, or round robin schemes can be used tochoose a particular edge server from many edge servers in a particularPOP 120.

Based upon analysis of the content stream, another edge server 530 inanother POP 120 can be chosen when it is deemed that delivery to the IPaddress of the end user system 102 may work better. The edge server 530in the other POP 120 would be routed the request in that circumstance.The edge server 530 is chosen by the other POP 120 according to oneembodiment, but in this embodiment, the switch fabric 540 of the currentPOP 120 chooses the particular edge server 530 in the other POP 120. Theswitch fabric 540 routes the request to the chosen edge server 530 inblock 924. The edge server fulfills the request for the content objectin block 928.

With reference to FIG. 9B, a flowchart of another embodiment of aprocess 900-2 for improving upon Anycast routing is shown. The depictedportion of the process 900-2 follows the embodiment of FIG. 9A forblocks 904, 908, 912, and 916. After block 916, the switch fabric 540assigns the request to an edge server 530 in the current POP 120 inblock 918. Different POPs 120 are favored to deliver different contentobjects. In this embodiment, the edge server 530 favored to deliver acontent object is found within the CDN 110 regardless of POP 120 inblock 922. A favored edge server 530 may be favored because it alreadystores the content object, is less loaded resources and/or bandwidth, itis likely to deliver higher QoS, is closer to the requester in a networksense, has better resources, has specialized software to support therequest, or has some other factor or characteristic.

If the edge server 530 is not favored to deliver the requested content,the edge server 530 queries throughout the CDN to find another edgeserver 530. In this embodiment, an edge server is not favored when ithas not cached or stored the content object. Each edge server 530 has atable that specifies a parent server to query for finding a favored edgeserver 530 that has cached or stored the content object. The table mayhave different parent servers for a content objects or groups of contentobjects. That parent server may query to another parent server if thecontent object is not stored or cached. This process can continue untileven the origin server is determined to be the only server in the chainthat has the content object stored.

Once the source of the content object is found, the source is relayedback through the chain of ancestors to the original edge server 530 thatwas initially assigned the request. The original edge server 530 returnsa redirect to the end user system 102 in block 926. The redirect causesthe end user system 102 to request the content object from the contentsource. In block 930, the content source fulfills the request for thecontent object. In this way, the end user system 102 can be directed toanother POP, a host server or even the origin server.

A number of variations and modifications of the disclosed embodimentscan also be used. For example, the CDN could operate the messaging queueintake and outtake as a service on the Internet. Any collection ofentities or businesses could use the CDN to share information in acollective manner that would benefit from certain information even if itis from a competitor. With increasing numbers of different categoriesand types of streams that are present on the messaging queue, the moredifferent types of information can be taken into account when making adecision. Some embodiments use processing rules to weight differentsources in the stream differently. Routing, for example, could have aweighting algorithm to favor internally gathered results over resultsfrom another source of gathered information.

Specific details are given in the above description to provide athorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it is understoodthat the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details.For example, circuits may be shown in block diagrams in order not toobscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances,well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniquesmay be shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring theembodiments.

Also, it is noted that the embodiments may be described as a processwhich is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, astructure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describethe operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can beperformed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of theoperations may be re-arranged. A process is terminated when itsoperations are completed, but could have additional steps not includedin the figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, aprocedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process correspondsto a function, its termination corresponds to a return of the functionto the calling function or the main function.

Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software,scripting languages, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardwaredescription languages, and/or any combination thereof. When implementedin software, firmware, middleware, scripting language, and/or microcode,the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks may bestored in a machine readable medium such as a storage medium. A codesegment or machine-executable instruction may represent a procedure, afunction, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, asoftware package, a script, a class, or any combination of instructions,data structures, and/or program statements. A code segment may becoupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and/orreceiving information, data, arguments, parameters, and/or memorycontents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed,forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memorysharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.

While the principles of the disclosure have been described above inconnection with specific apparatuses and methods, it is to be clearlyunderstood that this description is made only by way of example and notas limitation on the scope of the disclosure.

1. A content delivery network (CDN) for delivering content of otherswith the Internet using a plurality of point of presences (POPs), theCDN comprising: a first POP accessible using an Internet protocol (IP)address, wherein the first POP comprises a plurality of first edgeservers that each are configured to deliver content to end user devices;a second POP accessible using the IP address, wherein: the plurality ofPOPs comprise the first POP and the second POP, the second POP isgeographically separated from the first POP, and the second POPcomprises a plurality of second edge servers that each are configured todeliver content to end user devices; and a switch fabric that assigns arequest for content received at the first POP to one of the plurality ofsecond edge servers when the second POP is determined likely to provideimproved delivery of the content object of the request.
 2. The CDN fordelivering content of others with the Internet using the plurality ofPOPs as recited in claim 1, wherein the first and second POPs share thesame IP address according to an Anycast routing scheme.
 3. The CDN fordelivering content of others with the Internet using the plurality ofPOPs as recited in claim 1, wherein the switch fabric is distributedwith portions within both the first POP and the second POP.
 4. The CDNfor delivering content of others with the Internet using the pluralityof POPs as recited in claim 1, further comprising: a first data agent togather delivery statistics for requests serviced by the first POP; asecond data agent to gather delivery statistics for requests serviced bythe second POP; and a message queue that aggregates delivery statisticsfrom the first data agent and the second data agent, wherein theaggregated delivery statistics are streamed to the switch fabric toaffect assignment of the request.
 5. The CDN for delivering content ofothers with the Internet using the plurality of POPs as recited in claim1, further comprising a messaging queue, which gathers deliverystatistics from the first POP and the second POP to produce a stream,which affects how the switch fabric assigns requests among the pluralityof POPs.
 6. The CDN for delivering content of others with the Internetusing the plurality of POPs as recited in claim 1, further comprising amessaging queue, which gathers delivery statistics from at least one ofthe first POP and/or the second POP and a third party not under thecontrol or within the domain of the CDN to produce a stream of deliverystatistics, which affects how the switch fabric assigns requests amongthe plurality of POPs.
 7. The CDN for delivering content of others withthe Internet using the plurality of POPs as recited in claim 1, furthercomprising a processing subscriber that receives information gatheredinside and outside the CDN to affect how the switch fabric assignsrequests to POPs.
 8. A method for assigning delivery resources in a CDNbetween a plurality of POPs, the method comprising: receiving a requestto deliver a content object to an end user at a first POP, wherein: thefirst POP comprises a plurality of first edge servers, the plurality ofPOPs includes the first POP and a second POP, and the first POP isgeographically distant from the second POP; determining that the secondPOP is likely to provide improved delivery of the content object to theend user in comparison to the first POP, wherein: the second POPcomprises a plurality of second edge servers, and the first POP and thesecond POP are accessed from the Internet with a same IP address; andassigning the request to one of the plurality of second edge servers. 9.The method for assigning delivery resources in the CDN between aplurality of POPs as recited in claim 8, further comprising processinginformation gathered inside and outside the CDN to affect thedetermining.
 10. The method for assigning delivery resources in the CDNbetween a plurality of POPs as recited in claim 8, wherein the assigningthe request includes issuing a redirect to an end user system to assignthe request to one of the plurality of second edge servers.
 11. Themethod for assigning delivery resources in the CDN between a pluralityof POPs as recited in claim 8, wherein the determining takes intoaccount network proximity of an originator of the request and theplurality of POPs.
 12. The method for assigning delivery resources inthe CDN between a plurality of POPs as recited in claim 8, furthercomprising: gathering first delivery results from the first POP andsecond delivery results from the second POP into a stream; and couplingthe stream to routing fabric that assigns the requests between theplurality of POPs.
 13. The method for assigning delivery resources inthe CDN between a plurality of POPs as recited in claim 8, wherein thefirst and second POPs share the same IP address according to an Anycastrouting scheme.
 14. The method for assigning delivery resources in theCDN between a plurality of POPs as recited in claim 8, furthercomprising: gathering delivery statistics from the first POP and thesecond POP to produce a stream; and processing the stream to assignrequests among the plurality of POPs.
 15. A machine-readable mediumhaving machine-executable instructions configured to perform themachine-implementable method for assigning delivery resources in a CDNbetween a plurality of POPs of claim
 8. 16. A method for assigningdelivery resources in a distributed delivery network having a pluralityof POPs that uses Anycast to assist in assigning content requests, themethod comprising: receiving a request to deliver a content object to anend user at a first POP, wherein the plurality of POPs includes thefirst POP and a second POP; determining that the second POP is likely toprovide improved delivery of the content object to the end user incomparison to the first POP, wherein: the plurality of POPs comprise thefirst POP and the second POP, first and second POPs share the same IPaddress, the first POP is geographically distant from the second POP,and the first POP and the second POP are accessed from the Internetusing a same IP address; and re-assigning the request to the second POPfor delivery of the content object to the end user.
 17. The method forassigning delivery resources in the distributed delivery network havingthe plurality of POPs that uses Anycast to assist in assigning contentrequests as recited in claim 16, further comprising processinginformation gathered inside and outside the distributed delivery networkto affect the determining.
 18. The method for assigning deliveryresources in the distributed delivery network having the plurality ofPOPs that uses Anycast to assist in assigning content requests asrecited in claim 16, wherein the determining takes into account networkproximity of an originator of the request and the plurality of POPs. 19.The method for assigning delivery resources in the distributed deliverynetwork having the plurality of POPs that uses Anycast to assist inassigning content requests as recited in claim 16, further comprising:gathering first delivery results from the first POP and second deliveryresults from the second POP into a stream; and coupling the stream torouting fabric that assigns the requests between the plurality of POPs.20. The method for assigning delivery resources in the distributeddelivery network having the plurality of POPs that uses Anycast toassist in assigning content requests as recited in claim 16, furthercomprising: gathering delivery statistics from the first POP and thesecond POP to produce a stream; and processing the stream to assignrequests among the plurality of POPs.